Autotopographies of Forced Displacement: City Walking Tours as a Path for Political Visibility

Abstract

Though forced displacement is prominent within academic research, as well as within public, political, and media debates, all too often the image of forcibly displaced persons is that of voiceless victims and the structural causes behind their trauma are overlooked. The article works to disrupt this problematic visualization through an original study of walking tours offered by refugees and internally displaced persons in Berlin and Jaffa. It utilizes walking as the method and theme of research, mapping the potential of walking as a collaborative pedagogy and a subaltern design tactic to claim political participation and belonging in the city. Through this, the article offers a new analytical perspective concerning the agency of discalced persons to navigate the politics of their (im)mobility and (in)visibility. The main argument is that these guided tours or ‘autotopographies’ of forced displacement hold the political capacity to alter the public visibility of displaced people, but also to illuminate aspects that are overlooked or erased within the city’s official display of memory. The article therefore advances debates about the politics of urban space and heritage sites and contributes to research which seeks to theorize the multiple geo-temporal colonial entanglement of forced displacement regimes.

Paths of Erasure and Trails of Resistance in aNeo‐Settler‐ColonialCity

“…From the outset, Yusuf Asfour, third generation IDP, stresses that his guided tour blurs the boundaries between a pedagogical tourist experience and a tactic of activism, stating, “So, welcome to Yaffa's tour—throughout you will be asking yourself, is Yusuf leading you on a tour or is he fighting the Zionist narrative?” (quoted in Huss 2022a:1). A history teacher, he has hosted walking tours since 1996, as an interactive way to inspire young IDPs to learn about their history and identity—silenced in the Israeli discourse and public‐school curriculum—and to other audiences.…”

“…A history teacher, he has hosted walking tours since 1996, as an interactive way to inspire young IDPs to learn about their history and identity—silenced in the Israeli discourse and public‐school curriculum—and to other audiences. Yusuf explains that the feeling that Yaffa is continuously “being pulled from under his legs” saddens him and pushes him to be “more of an activist” (quoted in Huss 2022a:15). In an example of this ongoing disappearance, we visit the location of a former Palestinian factory (Stop 1 in Figure 3) to see its original sign that remains intact; however, upon our arrival we discover it is hidden by a construction site, the building soon to be erased altogether.…”

“…In an example of this ongoing disappearance, we visit the location of a former Palestinian factory (Stop 1 in Figure 3) to see its original sign that remains intact; however, upon our arrival we discover it is hidden by a construction site, the building soon to be erased altogether. “You see how they flatten the narrative”, Yusuf says, and adds, “I keep living in fear that it will all disappear” (quoted in Huss 2022a:14–15). We sneak into the site to photograph the building.…”

“…At another stop (Stop 3 in Figure 3) he asks, “Have you heard of Old Jaffa Hostel? Everyone loves it, but there is a sad story here of identity blurring, since it used to be a Palestinian home” (quoted in Huss 2022a:14–15). As Yusuf explains, in Yaffa the gentrification has an added ethno‐national dimension.…”

“…During his tour, Yusuf notes that for IDPs in Yaffa, “the Absent Property Law created a sad situation that you could see your home but could not return” (quoted in Huss 2022a:14). He describes how after the war his entire family was forced to share his great uncle's two‐storey house with a Jewish family—having to co‐inhabit their city and home with those who dispossessed them.…”